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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



OUR CELESTIAL HOME: 



AN ASTRONOMER'S VIEW OF HEAVEN. 



BY .- 

JERMAIN G. PORTER, A.M., 

DIRECTOR OF THE CINCINNATI OBSERVATORY. 




NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 



\ 'S ^ 'T^. "^ 






Copyright, 18.S8. by 
Anson D. F. Randolph 




PRESS OF 

EDWARD O. JENKINS' SON'S, 

NEW YORK. 



PREFACE 



The thought that heaven may lie within 
the starry universe is by no means new. It 
has been a favorite theme with many writers. 
But so far as the author is aware, this idea 
has never been critically examined in the 
light of astronomical science, certainly not in 
the light of the most recent investigations 
and discoveries in the field of stellar physics. 
A certain class of writers, indeed, have main- 
tained that the material universe is inevitably 
destined to decay and death, and therefore 
not fitted for the eternal dwelling-place of 
the redeemed. The following passage, quoted 
from the " Unseen Universe," is a good illus- 
tration of this philosophic assumption : 

"Supposing that man, in some form, is 

permitted to remain on the earth for a long 

series of years, we merely lengthen out the 

period, but we can not escape the final catas- 

(3) 



4 Preface. 

trophe. The earth will gradually lose its 
energy of rotation, as well as that of revolu- 
tion around the sun. The sun himself will 
wax dim and become useless as a source of 
energy, until at last the present favorable 
conditions of the solar system will have quite 
disappeared. 

"But what happens to our system will 
happen likewise to the whole visible universe, 
which will, if finite, become a lifeless mass, 
if indeed it be not doomed to utter dissolu- 
tion. In fine, it will become old and effete, 
no less truly than the individual. It is a 
glorious garment, this visible universe, but 
not an immortal one. We must look else- 
where if we are to be clothed with immor- 
tality as with a garment." 

It is true that the doctrine of the dissipa- 
tion of energy furnishes some slight grounds 
for such assertions as these : but this doctrine 
is not an ultimatum of science. The dissi- 
pated force is not destroyed. Higher laws 
and undetected agencies may be at work 
gathering up and storing this energy. Cer- 



Preface. 5 

tainly there is no evidence that He who 
created the universe can not uphold and pre- 
serve it so long as He chooses. 

Professor Drummond in his grand work, 
" Natural Law in the Spiritual World," seems 
to entertain similar views. He well says that 
eternal life is not merely existence prolonged 
forever: it is to know God, to have com- 
munion with Him. This is the correspond- 
ence which will never break, with the environ- 
ment which is truly eternal. But, according 
to Professor Drummond, this is the only cor- 
respondence that possesses everlastingness ; 
all other correspondences are temporal, " they 
belong to time and to this present world. 
.... They are in their nature unfitted for an 
eternal life." These lower correspondences 
with the material environment "must, in 
some way, be unloosed and dissociated from 
the higher elements ; and this is effected by 
a closing catastrophe — Death." 
^ But death is the penalty of sin. The fall 
was the cause of the imperfect correspondence 
between man and nature. If Adam had not 



6 Preface. 

sinned would it have been necessary for soul 
and body to be separated before he could 
enter upon eternal life? It is not because 
the environment and correspondences are 
material in their nature that they must pass 
away, but because they are tainted with evil. 
Professor Drummond, moreover, appears 
to have lost sight of the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body. Communion of 
the unclothed spirit with its Maker would 
beyond a doubt constitute heaven, but not 
the complete and glorious heaven promised 
in the Bible. " For we that are in this taber- 
nacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that 
we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, 
that mortality might be swallowed up of life." 
The very biological analogy which points to 
a spiritual kingdom rising above the organic 
kingdom, would also lead us to look for the 
incorporation of the material into this spirit- 
ual kingdom. We do not find the organic 
kingdom existing alone by itseK : it is built 
up on the foundation of the mineral kingdom. 
The lower forms of matter are raised through 



Preface. 7 

the life forces into the higher forms. So 
with the spiritual kingdom : the energies of 
that higher realm are perfectly adequate to 
transform the baser elements of our nature, 
and fit them for the exalted life of immor- 
tality. " If the Spirit of Him that raised up 
Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that 
raised up Christ from the dead shall also 
quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that 
dwelleth in you." 

Death will effect a separation between the 
lower and the higher, between the weak, im- 
perfect body which has been the home of the 
natural man, and the regenerated, perfected 
spirit. But the separation is not to be final. 
Like the seed buried in the ground, the body 
shall spring up again at the resurrection, and 
under the potent influences that hold sway in 
the spiritual kingdom, shall blossom forth in 
immortal beauty. Just as the kingdom of 
life was grafted upon the mineral kingdom, 
and through its loftier and more subtile 
potencies, beautified and ennobled a world 
otherwise barren and dead ; so we believe the 



8 Preface. 

spiritual kingdom is destined, not to super- 
sede the natural, but still further to exalt 
and glorify it. Sin and all its terrible effects 
will be banished from the universe and driven 
into outer darkness. Death and the grave 
will surrender their prey, and life and im- 
mortality will forever reign throughout the 
illimitable sweep of God's mighty empire. 

The author trusts that this Kttle volume 
will prove acceptable not merely to those 
who have made a careful study of the sub- 
ject, but to that far greater number whose 
ideas of heaven are vague and unsatisfactory. 
While the views here set forth will not be 
accepted by all, they may at least serve to 
invite attention to that ^' silent land '' upon 
whose borders we are dwelling, and present 
it in a form which, to some minds, perchance, 
may prove attractive. If the nature of the 
theme has necessitated giving special promi- 
nence to the material side of heaven, it is not 
because this is considered its most important 
feature. Far abler pens have many times 
sought to portray the joy and bliss of the 



Preface. 9 

celestial country, and have set forth the 
spiritual elements which constitute its very 
atmosphere. Purity and holiness are far more 
essential than any material surroundings ; for 
without these no man shall see the Lord; 
and where He is, there is heaven. " I shall 
be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness." 
" It doth not yet appear what we shall be ; 
but we know that when He shall appear, we 
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
He is." Into this soul-likeness to Christ may 
every reader of this little book seek to grow, 
that heaven, wherever located, may be to him 
indeed HOME. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Heaven a Material Locauty, ... 15 

II. Heaven a Part of the Universe. . 27 

in. The Habitability of the Celestial 

Worlds, 43 

IV. Stability of the Universe as to 

Motion, 63 

Y. Stability of the Universe as to 

Force, 87 

VI. Conclusion, 105 



HEAYEN A MATERIAL LOCALITY. 



L 

HEAYEN A MATEKIAL LOCALITY. 

There is a wide-spread feeling in the Chris- 
tian Church that heaven is some ethereal realm, 
entirely beyond and distinct from the phys- 
ical universe, where God has established His 
spiritual kingdom uncontaminated by contact 
with anything so gross as matter. This idea 
doubtless has its rise in the fact that our poor 
sin-cursed world is for us the type of the 
whole created universe, and the corruption 
and evil which reign in and around us seem 
necessarily inherent in all matter. Add to 
this the fact that the Scriptures contrast the 
flesh and the spirit, making the one the type 
of the earthly and the other of the heavenly, 
and we have no difficulty in accounting for 
the prevalence of the conception of an imma- 
terial heaven where all is pure spirit. 

(15) 



16 Out Celestial Home. 

If, however, we study more carefully the 
teachings of the Bible, we shall jSnd no sup- 
port for this idea, but, on the contrary, the 
strongest presumption for the opposite opin- 
ion. Heaven is indeed supremely a spiritual 
world. Its King, its laws, its inhabitants, its 
occupations, its joys, all are spiritual. Flesh 
and blood, in the sense of the carnal mind, 
the lower nature, an existence centered in self, 
with unworthy motives, desires and aims, can 
not inherit the kingdom of God. The spir- 
itual mind, which alone has the promise of 
life and peace, is centered in God. All its 
springs are in Him, and He is the perfect 
fulfillment of all its hopes and aspirations. 
But there is nothing in this conception of the 
spirituality of heaven which at all excludes 
the idea of its being a material locality. 

Let us now see what we can gather from 
the teachings of the Bible respecting this 
question. We begin with Eden, the earthly 
paradise. This was material, and yet it was 
holy. The Lord God walked in the garden in 
the cool of day not only, we may well sup- 



Our Celestial Home. 17 

pose, to hold communion with the human 
souls which He had created, but to enjoy as 
well the quiet beauty of the sunset hour. 
" The Lord rejoiceth in all His works "; and 
why should He not ? He created them for 
His own glory ; and when He looked upon 
them, behold, they were very good. Paradise 
and its inhabitants were holy. Sin lurked 
neither in body nor soul. Spirit and matter 
were alike untainted. 

Notice also that the temptation which led 
to the fall not only came through a wicked 
spirit, but that the temptation itself was pre- 
sented not so much to the carnal appetite as 
to the desire for spiritual knowledge. " For 
God doth know that in the day j^e eat there- 
of, your eyes shall be open, and ye shall be 
as gods knowing good and evil." 

We see, then, most clearly that matter as 

originally created was not inherently evil. 

But how is it since the fall ? Nature was 

cursed for man's sake. Have we any reason 

to believe that the curse extended beyond 

our own planet \ Would it not, in fact, be 
2 



18 Our Celestial Home. 

an unwarrantable assumption, and an exag- 
geration of the importance of the human 
race in relation to the outlying universe, to 
suppose that the effect of man's sin has been 
visited upon other worlds and systems ? Un- 
less we establish a kind of Ptolemaic system 
of moral astronomy and make our earth the 
center of the moral universe, so that a disaf- 
fection here shall reach out and permeate the 
whole, we must certainly acknowledge that, 
with the exception of this one tiny globe, the 
material universe still exists in its pristine 
purity, and may well be a fit dwelling-place 
for immortal, holy beings. 

But not only does the Bible teach that 
there is no necessary antagonism between 
the material and the spiritual ; it goes much 
further. The regeneration of the soul is not 
more plainly taught and more strenuously in- 
sisted on in the Scriptures than is the regen- 
eration of the body. Both are a part of the 
same redemptive scheme. The body is to 
partake of the benefits of Christ's sacrifice, 
and will be raised up in glory at the resurrec- 



Our Celestial Home, 19 

tion. It is needless to argue this, for it is a 
fundamental article of the Christian's faith. 

One theory, however, must be briefly no- 
ticed. Paul speaks of the spiritual body in 
contrast with the natural body, and from this 
expression some have surmised that the resur- 
rection body will be pure spirit, and there- 
fore immaterial. This theory is too self-con- 
tradictory and too plainly opposed to the 
general Bible doctrine on the subject to be 
worthy of very serious consideration. It is 
self -contradictory because a body composed of 
spirit is not a body at all. If the soul is to 
be clothed with spirit at the resurrection, 
how will it then be better off than imme- 
diately after death ? * For it is already pure 
spirit. And where will be the triumph over 
death and the grave ? For death will hold 
all he ever gets, namely, our material bodies. 
It is contrary to Scripture, for the patriarch 
Job exclaims, '^ Though after my skin worms 
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
God ; whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
eyes shall behold, and not another*, though 



20 Our Celestial Home. 

my reins be consumed within me." Isaiah 
prophesies, " Thine eyes shall see the King 
in His beauty ; they shall behold the land 
that is very far off " (Hebrew, '' the land of 
far distances "). Christ says that the children 
of the resurrection are as the angels of God 
in heaven. But the angels are almost beyond 
question beings with physical organizations. 
In the many recorded appearances of angels 
they always had the form and attributes of 
men. They walked, they talked, they ate ; 
the angel wrestled with Jacob ; the messen- 
ger to Daniel wps caused to fly quickly and 
touched him at the time of the evening ob- 
lation. 

But strongest of all is the proof from the 
resurrection body of our Lord. Christ was 
the first-fruits of them that slept. His resur- 
rection was an earnest and type of that of 
His followers. "What was the nature of His 
resurrection body ? Jesus himseK answered 
this question when He said to the terrified 
disciples, "Behold my hands and my feet, 
that it is I myself : handle me and see, 



Our Celestial Home. 21 

for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see 
me have." The spiritual body is not then to 
be interpreted as meaning an immaterial sub- 
stance, but rather a body purified and refined 
of its dross and made fit for the indwelling 
of the Spirit. Though changed and raised 
up in incorruption and glory, it will still be 
the same identical body. We know that force 
can so change matter here upon the earth 
that it IS difiicult to recognize the identity. 
What have the cold, barren, lifeless wastes of 
polar ice in common with the invisible and 
almost impalpable steam that drives the ma- 
chinery ot the globe ? And yet they are com- 
posed of the same molecules, only changed 
by force. So our resurrection bodies may 
differ from our earthly bodies as hydrogen 
differs from lead, and still be the same, only 
transformed by forces of which we are now 
ignorant. 

If the souls of believers are to be clothed 
with bodies resemblmg the resurrection body 
of Christ, and are to retain a continuity of 
existence with the present life, it is only a 



22 Our Celestial Home. 

fair and natural inference that their future 
abode will be a material locality. We can, 
perhaps, conceive the saints as floating about 
in empty nothingness; but the idea is un- 
satisfying and repugnant, as well as unnatural. 
" We look for a city which hath foundations," 
"the new Jerusalem, coming down from 
God out of heaven." 

How, we may well ask, can all the sublime 
imagery of the Bible be reconciled with the 
idea of an ethereal heaven where there is 
nothing but spirit ? Nor is it only the im- 
agery of the Bible which points to a material 
dwelhng for the soul. The Apostle Peter 
describes the final conflagration which is to 
burn up the earth with all its wickedness, the 
atmospheric heavens exploding with a great 
noise, and the very elements melting with 
the fervent heat. But, as we well know, this 
conflagration would not annihilate but only 
alter the form of the matter composing the 
globe ; and accordingly we read, '' Neverthe- 
less, we, according to His promise, look for 
new heavens and a new earth wherein dwell- 



Our Celestial Home, 23 

eth righteousness." Is it possible to resist 
the conclusion that the earth is to come forth 
from its burning purified and regenerated, 
and to take its place thenceforth as a part of 
heaven ? 

We shall recur in a future chapter to this 
subject. Suffice it to say here that if indeed 
it be a doctrine of Scripture that this same 
old earth, which has witnessed the mighty 
conflict between good and evil, and the vic- 
tory of our Lord over death and the grave, 
and shall witness the final triumph of His 
church, is to come forth from its baptism of 
fire once again sanctified and holy, and to 
form part of that heaven wherein dwelleth 
righteousness ; not only is it a doctrine which 
accords pre-eminently with the eternal fitness 
of things, but it should forever set at rest the 
question of the materiality of the heavenly 
world. 



n. 



HEAVEN A PAET OF THE 
UNIVERSE. 



11. 



HEAYEN A PAET OF THE 
UNIYEESE. 

Admitting that a material locality best 
accords with the Scriptural representations of 
heaven, it is a natural inquiry, where shall 
we look for this favored spot? In what 
direction shall we point our telescopes to 
catch, perchance, a far-off glimpse of those 
glittering towers and jasper walls and pearly 
gates ? I say it is a natural query ; but here, 
aside from the assurance that our own planet 
will hereafter become a habitation of righte- 
ousness and, therefore, a portion of heaven, 
the Bible sheds no light, and we are left to 
such conjectures upon the subject as seem 
most in accordance with reason. 

If heaven is material, it is, of course, in- 
cluded within the bounds of God's created 

universe; and it may lie either within the 

(27) 



28 Out Celestial Home. 

fiinits of the stellar cluster to which our solar 
system belongs, or entirely outside and be- 
yond it, in some so distant realm that not 
even the most powerful lens can penetrate 
the vail of space that hangs between. Which 
is the more probable view ? In order to form 
an intelligent opinion upon this question, it 
will be well to gain some conception of the 
extent and condition of the visible universe. 

The knowledge of the amazing vastness by 
which we are surrounded has dawned upon 
the human mind by slow degrees. As you 
stand beneath night's glorious canopy, those 
twinkling stars seem scarcely more distant 
than terrestrial lights. It is only when the 
truth is forced upon the mind by laborious 
research and careful reasoning, that we begin 
to realize the tremendous sweep of vision 
which the starry depths afford. The ancients 
had no idea whatever of celestial distances, 
except in the case of our own moon. Its 
distance being but thirty diameters of the 
earth, was easily measured ; but all attempts 
to span the chasm between the earth and 



Our Celestial Home. 29 

Bun failed utterly. Ptolemy stated the dis- 
tance at six hundred diameters of the earth, 
a result which is twenty times too small. It 
was not until the revival of intellectual 
activity in the sixteenth century, that the 
supreme authority of Ptolemy was seriously 
questioned. Kepler and his contemporaries 
saw clearly that the old value must be far too 
small, but the seventeenth century began to 
wane before the distance was actually meas- 
ured. 

The sun's true distance we now know to 
be between ninety-two and ninety-three mill- 
ions of miles. But who can realize what this 
statement means ? If we were to travel round 
and round the earth, making the trip four 
times each year, we should require Methuse- 
lah's lifetime to accomplish a distance equal 
to that which separates us from the sun. 
Could we board an express train bound for 
the sun and running sixty miles an hour 
without a single stop, the journey would still 
consume one hundred and seventy-five years. 
Beings that traverse celestial spaces must cer- 



30 Out Celestial Home. 

tainly have far fleeter wings than any bird of 
passage that soars through terrestrial skies. 

But we have yet scarcely commenced our 
outward flight through realms supernal. 
Jupiter pursues his majestic course five times 
as far from the sun as our tiny globe, Saturn 
about ten times as far, and Neptune, sunk in 
the depths of space nearly three billions of 
miles or thirty times the earth's distance 
from the sun, keeps sentry upon the confines 
of the system. 

Having at last attained to a just conception 
of the scale of the solar system, the human 
mind paused. Nearly two centuries elapsed 
after the sun's distance was determined, before 
it was possible to bridge the gulf of space 
which separates our system from the sphere 
of the fixed stars. Let us see how the case 
now stood. In order to get the sun's dis- 
tance it was necessary to take a base-line upon 
the earth's surface, and from its extremities 
to measure the direction of the sun ; but hav- 
ing once determined the diameter of the 
earth's orbit, it became possible in all future 



Our Celestial Home. 31 

triangulations in space to employ this more 
extended line for a base. Astronomers could 
not, of course, set up their instruments simul- 
taneously at each end of the line; but as 
the earth moves from one side to the other 
of its orbit in intervals of six months, they 
could measure the direction of the heavenly 
bodies alternately from points in space sepa- 
rated by the tremendous distance of one hun- 
dred and eighty-five millions of miles. 

Eight here lay a difficulty that nearly 
proved fatal to the Copernican system of as- 
tronomy; for the stars, instead of shifting 
their apparent positions as the earth pro- 
gressed in its journey around the sun, seemed 
absolutely immovable. How is it possible, 
urged the objector, that the stars can appear 
in the same direction from points so far apart 
as the opposite sides of the earth's orbit? 
Either the doctrine that the earth revolves 
around the sun is false, or else the distance of 
the stars must be so great that in comparison 
with it one hundred and eighty-five millions 
of miles is an infinitesimal quantity. As- 



32 Our Celestial Home. 

tronomers of each succeeding generation 
sought in vain to solve the problem. The 
years rolled up into centuries,. and yet no ray 
of light penetrated this dark mystery. CoulU 
it be that those twinkhng stars which seemed 
so near, were really plunged in space to such 
an appalling depth that the utmost refine- 
ment of astronomic science would fail en- 
tirely to sound the abyss ? 

The great increase in the power and per- 
fection of astronomical instruments which the 
early part of the present century witnessed, 
led to renewed efforts to fathom the gulf of 
space. Bessel was the first to achieve success. 
It is yet scarcely fifty years since he announced 
that the star named Sixty-one Cygni was 
separated from us by about sixty millions of 
millions of miles. Immediately following 
the now classic labors of Bessel, came Struve's 
measurement of the distance of the brilliant 
Yega, and Henderson's determination of that 
of the southern star Alpha Centauri, Thus 
the great barrier that had so long restrained 
the onward march of knowledge, was almost 



Our Celestial Home. 33 

amultaneously overleaped at three different 
points. 

Later measures have reduced somewhat 
the distance of Bessel's star, making it more 
nearly forty trillions'^ of miles. Alpha Cen- 
tauri is, however, so far as we now know, the 
star which lies in closest proximity to our 
system. Its distance is not far from twenty- 
five trillions of miles. So futile is the at- 
tempt to gain any just conception of such 
prodigious numbers that it is a common 
practice with astronomers to adopt a more 
convenient unit in dealing with the distances 
of the fixed stars. This unit is the velocity 
of hght. The most subtile of all the material 
forces which come within our cognizance, 
light darts with more than three times the 
greatest speed of the electric current: it 
travels a million miles for every breath we 
draw : it would girdle the earth no less than 
seven times in a single second, and fly to the 
far distant sun in eight minutes. Surely here 

* According to the American numeration a triUion 
is a million millions. 
8 



34 Our Celestial Home. 

is a messenger fleet-winged enough to aunilii- 
late celestial space, and rival angelic visitants 
in their journeys from world to world ! But 
hold ! When we test our fancies by actual 
figures, and calculate the time that light 
occupies in coming down the shining track 
from yon bright star, we find it to be four 
years : and this from the very nearest. 

We stand in the midst of a mighty forest. 
Close to us on every side are a few trees, and 
back of these others and yet others until they 
are lost in the dim distance; and still the 
forest stretches on. So we float among the 
celestial worlds. Some are quite near, twenty- 
five, fifty, a hundred trillion miles ! But be- 
yond they yet glitter and gleam and glimmer, 
till lost in the haze of infinite expanse ; and 
still the great universe stretches endlessly 
outward. 

It is obvious that the distances of only the 
nearest of the stars can ever be measured. 
Astronomers have thus far succeeded in ob- 
taining a measurable value for less than fifty 
stars, and the length of the light journey 



Our Celestial Home, 35 

from these varies from four years to nearly 
a century. It is possible, however, to form 
a rough estimate at least of the probable dis- 
tances of stars too remote for actual determi- 
nation. This method is based on the simple 
principle that a star's brilKancy will decrease 
as its distance increases. Let us conceive the 
beautiful star Yega, in the constellation Lyra, 
to be removed to ten times its present dis- 
tance from the earth. ^It would then no 
longer be one of the brightest gems in the 
sky, but would have declined to a star of the 
sixth magnitude, and could just be discerned 
with the naked eye. Imagine its distance 
again increased tenfold, and it would shine 
as a star of the eleventh magnitude, too faint 
to be distinguished except by a telescope of 
moderate size. Once more let it plunge into 
space ten times as far as before ; and now at 
one thousand times its original distance our 
noble star would have sunk to the sixteenth 
magnitude, and only the giant telescopes of 
modern times would reveal its existence. 
In all this there is no assumption: it is 



36 Our Celestial Home. 

based on actual photometric measurements 
of the light of the stars, and upon the well- 
known law of the decrease of brightness 
according to the square of the distance. It 
is certain that if Yega were removed to one 
thousand times its present distance it would 
still be faintly visible in the largest telescopes. 
But it now takes light twenty years to come 
from Vega, and if the distance were increased 
a thousandfold the length of the light journey 
would also be increased a thousandfold: in 
other words, a star of the size and brilliancy 
of Vega could be seen at a point in space so 
far away that light would occupy twenty 
thousand years in traversing the intervening 
distance. Astronomy can not assert that the 
faintest stars we see with the telescope are 
actually so remote, because their size is un- 
known; but it is highly probable that the 
stars in the distant regions of space are equal 
in average size and brilliance to those im- 
mediately surrounding our system, while it is 
by no means impossible that some of them 
are brighter than we have assumed, and, 



Out Celestial Home. 37 

therefore, may lie at distances even more 
immense. 

It is not then an unreasonable assumption 
that the light which reaches us from the ex- 
treme Kmits of the visible universe has been 
winging its silent flight for twice ten thou- 
sand years. Shall we place heaven still farther 
away ? Shall we say that these bounds are 
too narrow for the home of the soul ? As- 
tronomers are by no means ready to assert 
that they have reached the confines of space, 
or that no more starry systems, rising height 
above height, go towering beyond the most 
penetrating gaze of their hugest telescopes. 
But the question ever recurs to the thought- 
ful mind, must we banish heaven so far away ? 
The lonely watcher beside the cold clay of a 
departed one glances longingly upward and 
asks, whither has the spirit flown ? And like 
the voyager leaving home and friends, he 
feels that every added mile increases the 
home-sickness and the grief. 

The Bible is silent, and doubtless for 
wise reasons, respecting the exact location of 



38 Our Celestial Hmne. 

heaven ; but this much it has plainly revealed, 
that constant intercourse is going on between 
this earth and the celestial realms. Eecall 
the many instances, both in the Old Testa- 
ment and the New, of angelic visitations. 
During the earthly life of our Savior He 
was continually watched and attended by 
these heavenly ministers, from the choir 
which announced His birth, on even to the 
shining one who rolled back the stone from 
the door of the sepulcher upon the resurrec- 
tion morn. The Bible gives not a little sup- 
port to the doctrine that each believer has his 
guardian angel. "Their angels do always 
behold the face of my Father which is in 
heaven." "Are they not all ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who 
shall be heirs of salvation % " 

If such constant intercourse is going on 
between heaven and earth, can we consider 
it at all probable that they are separated by 
the whole diameter of immeasurable space ? 
For it is to be remembered that angels, 
whether we think of them as possessed of 



Our Celestial Home. 39 

material organizations or as pure spirits, are 
subject to the laws of space and time. Were 
they free from these limitations, they would 
be omnipresent and eternal, attributes of the 
Almighty, Uncreated God alone. Of Him 
it is said that He inhabiteth eternity. His 
presence fills all space and all time. But 
created, finite intelligences are restricted by 
the inexorable laws of their being, and can 
only be and act in one place at a time. This 
is the teaching both of the Bible and of com- 
mon sense. When we find, then, such fre- 
quent communication between the heavenly 
land and ours, does it not furnish a strong 
presumption against such an awful chasm of 
intervening space as must exist if we banish 
heaven beyond the limits of the visible uni- 
verse ? May it not be true that, 

"Not far away does that bright city stand ; 
'Tis but the mist o*er its dividing stream 
That wraps the glory of its glittering strand, 
Its radiant skies and mountains' silvery gleam. 
Oh ! often in the blindness of our fate. 
We wander very near the city's pearly gate." 



m. 

THE HABITABILITT OF THE 
CELESTIAL WOBLDS. 



III. 

THE HABITABILITY OF THE 
CELESTIAL WOELDS. 

The question of the physical condition of 
the celestial bodies and of their habitability, 
has ever possessed a peculiar interest, an in- 
terest which can but be increased in view of 
the suggested possibility that among them 
may lie the city of our hope and love, the 
heavenly Jerusalem. A brief review of our 
present knowledge upon the subject will not, 
therefore, be out of place in this connection. 

The body most favorably situated for a 
study of its surface details, and, in fact, the 
only body concerning which we can ever ex- 
pect to gain any very definite information, is 
our own moon. Even here no object smaller 
than a massive building, like the pyramids 
or the great cathedrals, would be visible in 

the telescope. If living beings existed upon 

(43) 



44 Our Celestial Home. 

our satellite, therefore, we should not be able 
to see them directly, although we might de- 
tect evidences of their presence. But in re- 
spect to the general character of the moon's 
surface and the conditions which reign there, 
we can speak with certainty. We find it a 
rugged, mountainous globe, with no waving 
forests or smiling meadows no rivers or lakes 
or oceans, no elements capable of supporting 
animate existence, nothing but an arid waste, 
a decrepit world, an ancient cinder suspended 
in the sky. The entire absence of water and 
air would render life as we know it impossi- 
ble upon the moon. Aside from the lack of 
the very elements of life, the extreme and 
sudden variations of temperature between the 
lunar day and night would also be fatal to 
terrestrial beings. The direct rays of the 
sun beating down uninterruptedly for a fort- 
night, with no air to dissipate the heat, and 
with never a sheltering cloud or cooling 
shower, must raise the temperature of the 
moon's surface nearly to that of melting lead ; 
while with the disappearance of the sun be- 



Our Celestial Home. 45 

neatli the horizon, there being no atmospheric 
envelope to hinder radiation, an intensified 
arctic cold would, in a few short hours, en- 
wrap the dreary landscape. 

We can say, therefore, with almost certain- 
ty that the moon is not an inhabited world 
like ours ; but it does not necessarily follow 
that celestial beings who have the power to 
traverse space, can not exist upon or may not 
visit it from time to time. A creature who 
can breathe that ethereal, light-traiismitting 
medium which pervades all space, who hun- 
gers not nor thirsts, whom the heat does not 
smite by day nor the cold chill by night, such 
an one would be independent of the unfavor- 
able conditions which our satellite presents, 
and might roam through the wild, unearthly 
scenery unharmed by influences that would 
instantly stamp out the spark of mortal life. 

We can scarcely conceive of a celestial be- 
ing even, taking up a permanent abode upon 
such a world. As we shun the waste and 
desert places of the earth and choose our 
residence rather amid its fairest beauties, so 



46 Our Celestial Home, 

we may well suppose that angel and arch- 
angel, cherubim and seraphim, whose endow- 
ments and sensibilities far outrank our own, 
would pass by the desolate spots of the uni- 
verse to dwell among the blooming bowers 
of paradise. 

The moon, however, is not to be regarded 
as a representative type of the celestial bod- 
ies. Indeed, so far as our knowledge goes, 
it is an isolated example of a world without 
air. It is certain that Yenus possesses an 
atmosphere, and highly probable also in the 
case of Mercury. This latter planet, it is 
true, revolves so near the sun that the heat 
and light it receives are many fold greater 
than we experience on the earth. The sea- 
sons too run their course with surprising 
quickness, from midwinter to midsummer 
being but forty -four days. The extreme 
eccentricity of the orbit of Mercury, by vir- 
tue of which it alternately approaches to 
within thirty milhons of miles of the sun, 
and then recedes to forty-three millions of 
miles, greatly adds to the fluctuations of tern- 



Our Celestial Home. 47 

perature. But it would be unsafe to draw 
inferences as to the climate of the planet 
from these facts alone. Other causes may 
modify it very materially. 

It is probable that we never see the solid 
surface of either Mercury or Yenus. No 
permanent markings have been detected upon 
them, and the most trustworthy physical ob- 
servations point to the conclusion, at least in 
the case of Yenus, that the atmosphere is 
densely cloud laden. It will be readily seen 
that such an envelope about a planet might 
modify and equalize the temperature to a 
marked degree. 

In Mars we find a planet which presents 
many striking similarities to the earth. There 
is here no doubt that we see the real surface, 
for the shadings upon its disk appear always 
the same, and can be followed as they grad- 
ually rise into view on the eastern side and 
sink upon the western side, with the rotation 
of the planet. Complete maps of the Martial 
globe have been constructed, and names as- 
signed to the different features. Many as- 



48 Our Celestial Home. 

tronomers are inclined to regard the light 
and dark portions as continents and oceans, 
and the brilliant white regions which unmis- 
takably surround each pole, as ice-caps resem- 
bling those that exist upon the earth. , There 
is also at times an apparent dimness of the 
surface details, giving rise to a suspicion of 
clouds floating in the Martial atmosphere. 
In support of these conjectures of analogy 
between the earth and Mars, it may be said 
that if our globe were viewed under the same 
conditions, it would doubtless present a sim- 
ilar aspect ; but at the same time it is well to 
recognize the possibility that if we could gain 
a much nearer view of Mars, the resemblance 
might completely vanish. 

In another respect, however, we are sure 
of a striking likeness between the two planets. 
The day upon Mars is only about fhirty-seven 
minutes longer than our day, a difference so 
trifling that an inhabitant transferred from 
one planet to the other would scarcely notice 
it. Owing to the greater distance of Mars 
from the sun, its revolution is necessarily 



Out Celestial Home. 49 

slower, and the year is equal to nearly two 
earth years ; but the inclination of the equator 
to the plane of the orbit, and the consequent 
vicissitudes of the seasons, are much the same 
on both planets. 

Turning to mighty Jupiter, slow-coursing 
in its majestic orbit, we find conditions far 
different from any that we have yet contem- 
plated. The belts which surround his huge 
globe are not permanent, but are constantly 
undergoing transformations; and the spots 
which occasionally appear upon his disk seem 
to have a drifting motion of their own, so 
that the time of the planet's rotation as de- 
termined by one spot varies from that found 
by others. All this plainly shows that these 
belts and spots are not features of a solid 
globe, but are clouds or vapors floating in the 
planet's atmosphere. But while in the case 
of Mercury and Yenus we are at liberty to 
conjecture that underneath the cloud vail 
there may lie fair landscapes and verdant 
scenes of beauty, far otherwise is it with 

Jupiter. Below the mists that enshroud his 
4 



50 Our Celestial Home, 

colossal form we know tliat there are wild 
tempests raging. Furious hurricanes and 
cyclones sweep across his sky, agitating even 
the upper stratum of the clouds which forms 
the surface visible to our telescopes. 

Now all such phenomena upon the earth are 
due to the sun's heat, which acting on large 
masses of air disturbs their equilibrium, and 
so gives rise to storms and tempests. But 
the intensity of the sun's heat on Jupiter is 
less than a twenty-fifth as great as on the 
earth. When we find, therefore, that the 
disturbances in the Jovian atmosphere are 
vastly greater than in our own sky, we are 
forced to look for the cause within the planet 
itself. Various other facts conspire to prove 
that Jupiter is still intensely hot. His density 
is scarcely one-fourth that of the earth, indi- 
cating that the substances composing his globe 
are greatly expanded by the internal heat. It 
seems probable that no solid crust has yet 
formed, but that the seething vapors are in 
direct contact with the white-hot interior. 

Jupiter thus resembles far more closely the 



Our Celestial Some, 51 

sun than the earth, and is in no sense a habit- 
able world. It is, however^ at least a plausi- 
ble view, that in the revolving ages a time 
may come when, having lost its excessive 
heat through radiation, this great planet may- 
emerge from its tempestuous chaos into a 
dwelling-place for organic life. If science 
has read aright the history of the earth, it 
would seem that our own globe has passed 
through a state not unUke that which we now 
find upon Jupiter ; and the continuous action 
of the same laws may yet render that orb a 
fitting theatre for the display of life and 
beauty on a scale far grander than this insig- 
nificant terrestrial baU has ever witnessed. 

Coming to Saturn, we reach a point so re- 
mote from the earth that the most powerful 
telescopes fail to give us any definite knowl- 
edge concerning the surface details. Ranking 
next to Jupiter in size among the bodies of 
the solar system, it appears to bear a close re- 
semblance to that planet also in its physical 
condition. Its density is even less than 
Jupiter's. In fact, so light is this huge, ring- 



52 Our Celestial Some. 

encircled sphere, that, could it be cast into 
some vast ocean, it would actually float upon 
the surface. Such lightness is, of course, in- 
compatible with the idea of a solid globe; 
but if in the far future it shall reach a habit- 
able state, and be endowed with life, its occu- 
pants will behold a spectacle both singular 
and grand. Surrounded by its magnificent 
overarching rings, and accompanied beside 
by eight moons, the night scenery on Saturn 
must be glorious beyond description. We 
may well imagine that celestial travelers 
sometimes pause in their flight, to admire 
the unique and incomparable beauty of the 
Saturnian system. 

Two mighty orbs lie still beyond Saturn. 
Uranus and Neptune pursue their majestic 
courses upon the confines of the system ; but 
of their nature the telescope reveals nothing. 
The attraction which they exert upon their 
satellites gives us the means of ascertaining 
their masses, and hence their densities, which 
do not differ much from that of Jupiter. 
We, therefore, conjecture that they may like- 



Out Celestial Home, 53 

wise be in a chaotic state, and that, perchance, 
for them too the distant future has in store a 
glorious career when they shall become the 
abodes of life. 

From this rapid review of the physical 
conditions of the planets, it is evident that 
only a small proportion of them at the most 
can be ranked as at present possibly habitable 
worlds. It is, indeed, very improbable that 
man could exist for a moment on any planet 
except the earth ; for he is a creature whose 
adaptations to surroundings are very limited. 
A slight change in the proportion of the 
gases which form the atmosphere, a compara- 
tively small variation in the mean amount of 
heat or in the annual range of temperature, 
or various other slight causes, would soon 
lead to the extinction of the race. But other 
beings may be adapted to different conditions. 
Upon the earth lower forms of plant and 
animal life are discovered under circum- 
stances the most diverse that can well be 
imagined. We find life upon the mountain 
tops and in the ocean depths^ in the burning 



54 Our Celestial Home. 

heat of the tropics and the frost-bound regions 
of eternal snow, in rayless caverns as well as 
in the blazing light of day. Earth, air and 
water all teem with their myriad inhabitants. 
And so it requires no stretch of the imagina- 
tion to suppose that other planets may be 
filled with forms of life specially fitted to 
their environment. 

Let us admit that the earth may be the 
only inhabited orb in the solar system ; but 
what shall we say of the innumerable families 
of worlds that cluster about other suns ? It 
is true that the telescope has never revealed 
these worlds to our gaze, nor is it within the 
bounds of possibility that any increase of 
optical power will ever render them visible. 
Uranus, though over four times as large as 
the earth, can only just be discerned by the 
naked eye ; and Neptune, still larger, is totally 
invisible without a good-sized telescope. But 
as we have seen, the distances within the solar 
system are almost infinitesimal compared with 
the interstellar spaces. Were we to start upon 
a flight towards the nearest star, before we 



Our Celestial Home. 55 

had traversed a hundredth part of the dis- 
tance, all the planets would have sunk utterly 
out of sight, and the very largest lens would 
fail to detect their presence. The fact 
that we can not see the revolving orbs of 
other systems affords, therefore, no presump- 
tion whatever of their non-existence. 

When, in traveling at night, we see lights 
in the distance, then we know that yonder 
lies a town or city : so looking out into the 
universe of God and beholding the shining 
stars, which we surely know are blazing suns, 
many of them far surpassing our own in size 
and luster, reason tells us that around them 
there are worlds basking in their light and 
warmth. That the stars were created solely 
with reference to the earth is a most unworthy 
conception. Doubtless they do take their 
place with the moon as rulers of the night ; 
and so far as our planet is concerned, this is 
their only function. But to suppose that 
these great lights were formed and scattered 
far and wide throughout the universe, with 
no other purpose in view than to illuminate 



56 Our Celestial Rome. 

the night shades of this one most insignificant 
globe, is to impugn the wisdom of the 
Creator. 

We may rest assured that the glorious 
suns which roll and shine in the blue em- 
pyrean, are not wasting their light and heat 
upon empty space, but that brilliant retinues 
of planets, satellites and comets attend their 
triumphant march through the sky. What 
magnificent orbs there must be among those 
distant systems ! We look upon Jupiter as a 
stately planet. His diameter is ten times, and 
his surface area one hundred times that of 
the earth. But as Sirius exceeds the sun in 
mass a score of times, it may well have plan- 
ets revolving about it which surpass Jupiter 
tenfold in size and splendor. Think of worlds 
with a domain a thousandfold the extent of 
earth's broad expanse ! What mighty conti- 
nents, what boundless seas, what majestic 
rivers, what lofty mountains, what sublimity 
of scenery beyond imagination's power to 
picture, might we not look for upon such 
worlds ! 



Out Celestial Home. 57 

Nor is mere size or extent the only ele- 
ment of grandeur which we may attribute to 
the system attendant upon Sirius. The light 
with which he floods his circling planets is 
fifty times as brilHant as that which our sun 
emits. When after a night of darkness the 
sun's rays strike across the landscape, or when 
for days the storm clouds have hung like a 
pall above us, and suddenly a flood of radi- 
ance bursts through, scattering the dismal 
gloom, how glorious the transformation! 
But to the inhabitants of other systems, this 
effulgence, which cheers our eyes and fills 
our hearts with praise to the Giver of Hght 
and life, may, by reason of the glory that 
excelleth, seem but as night to noon. 

Beauty also, strange and weird, dwells in 
the rays of some of those far-away suns. 
Many of the stars, it is well known, are 
double, the separate components revolving 
about each other ; and not infrequently these 
twin suns exhibit the curious and beautiful 
phenomenon of contrasted or complementary 
colors. Antares, a fiery red star, has a small 



68 Our Celestial Home. 

green companion : Beta Cygni is deep yellow 
with a blue attendant : others are orange and 
lilac, white and purple, orange and yellow. 
" Indeed, it may be easier suggested in words 
than conceived in imagination, what variety 
of illumination two suns, a red and a green, 
or a yellow and a blue one, must afford a 
planet circling about either ; and what charm- 
ing contrasts and grateful vicissitudes a red 
and a green day, for instance, alternating 
with a white one and with darkness, might 
arise from the presence or absence of one or 
other or both above the horizon." ^ 

What other elements of beauty and sub- 
limity may exist in the celestial realms we 
know not. The distant glimpses that we have 
been enabled to obtain, are sufficient to over- 
whelm the intellect and ravish the imagina- 
tion. The vistas of glory that shall open be- 
fore the ransomed spirit, when, liberated 
from these fetters of mortality, it shall wing 
its flight to paradise, no tongue can tell, no 
pen portray. 

*Herschers ** Outlines of Astronomy." 



Our Celestial Home, 59 

We speak of the realms of the blest, 
Of that country so bright and so fair ; 

And oft are its glories confessed ; 
But what must it be to be there I " 



IV. 



STABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE AS 
TO MOTIOl^. 



IV. 



STABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE AS 
TO MOTION. 

The Bible contracts heaven with earth. 
This world is unstable, fleeting, transitory: 
its fashion soon passeth away. Heaven is a 
city which hath foundations, a kingdom which 
can not be moved, the eternal portion of the 
soul. It may well be asked, can we hope to 
find within the universe such an everlasting 
habitation, over which change shall have no 
power ? Does not the universe contain with- 
in itself the seeds of decay and death ? The 
final catastrophe which would destroy it in 
its present form, might be brought about in 
two ways; first, by the gradual gravitation 
of all the worlds and systems into one mighty 
mass of chaos ; or second, by the slow cool- 
ing of each body, until all should sink at last 

(63) 



64 Our Celestial Home. 

into death, and the universe go out in utter 
darkness. Let us examine these possibilities 
separately. 

The problem which presents itself first, 
then, is this : are the motions of the heavenly 
bodies so adjusted that they will forever pur- 
sue their courses as at present, without danger 
of collision ; or will there come a time, long 
ages distant, when gravitation will begin to 
overcome the original momentum that now 
keeps the planets and systems apart, so that 
they will fall together one by one, and finally 
all become merged in a huge mass of dis- 
organized matter ? 

With reference to the solar system, the 
question of stability has been most profoundly 
investigated. Such illustrious mathematicians 
as Euler, Clairaut, Laplace and Lagrange de- 
voted their lives to the solution of this great 
problem. Their labors have proved that, 
while the planetary orbits are undergoing con- 
stant mutations in all their elements, yet the 
changes never progress so far as to disturb 
the regularity of the system. These perturba- 



Our Celestial Home. 65 

tions, as they are called, are due to the mutual 
attractions of the planets on each other, which 
cause the planes of the orbits to rock to and 
fro, their figures to slowly expand and con- 
tract, and their perihelion points to revolve 
in vast periods ; but all of these oscillations 
are confined within narrow limits, every 
change shall wear away, and the spheres con- 
tinue to roll in their appointed paths, declar- 
ing forever the wisdom and glory of their 
Creator. 

Once, indeed, it did seem that an instance 
had been discovered where decay had begun 
to manifest itself. It was found tliat the 
moon was very slowly but surely approach- 
ing the earth, and had been doing so since 
the time of Hipparchus. This fact was shown 
by the increased rapidity of its motion ; for 
the nearer a body is to the center of revolu- 
tion, the faster must it move. Although the 
whole amount of the moon's gain is only 
about one degree or twice its own diameter 
in two thousand years, still this is sufficient, 

if it shall continue to accumulate, to render! 
6 ' 



66 Our Celestial Home, 

certain the final precipitation of our satellite 
upon the earth. Unless then this acceleration 
of the moon can be accounted for by the law 
of gravitation, we must admit that the doom 
of our system is sealed ; and though millions 
of years may intervene, yet the fatal day will 
come as surely as the march of time. 

Laplace, however, finally succeeded in trac- 
ing the cause of this singular phenomenon. 
He found it in the slow change of the form 
of the earth's orbit, which is gradually ex- 
panding and approaching more and more 
nearly to a circle. The eflEect of this change 
is to increase very slightly the average dis- 
tance of the earth and moon from the sun. 
The attraction of the sun upon the moon is, 
therefore, constantly becoming less, and the 
earth is permitted to draw its satellite closer 
to itself. But when the earth's orbit reaches 
the limit of its oscillation, and begins to re- 
turn to the elliptical form, this influence upon 
the moon will be reversed, and it will finally 
fall back to its original distance. 

Thus it was supposed that this question 



Our Celestial Home. 67 

was forever settled; but mathematicians of 
the present century have discovered an error 
in the computations of Laplace, and the result 
is that only a portion of the moon's accelera- 
tion is accounted for by the decrease in the 
eccentricity of the earth's orbit. The great 
complexity of the moon's motions renders the 
lunar theory, perhaps, the most difficult of 
all the problems of astronomy ; and hence it 
is scarcely to be wondered at that slight disa- 
greement between observation and computa- 
tion still exists; but no astronomer of the 
present day for a moment supposes that the 
moon is breaking loose from its ancient orbit, 
and will at last involve the earth in ruin. 
Some of the best mathematicians, indeed, con- 
sider the cause of the discrepancy to lie, not 
in the moon's motion at all, but in a gradual 
change which is taking place in the length of 
the terrestrial day. This is a somewhat start- 
ling statement, and may rudely shock our pre- 
conceived notions of the absolute uniformity 
of the earth's rotation ; but it is difficult to 
see how we are to escape from the conclusion 



68 Our Celestial Home. 

that the energy which causes the globe to 
spin on its sleeping axle, is gradually wasting 
away. 

The phenomenon of the tides is well 
known; and it is commonly supposed that 
all the force expended in producing them, 
resides in the moon. But this is far from 
being the case. The moon's attraction does 
raise the tides ; but it is the earth's rotation 
that causes them to sweep across the oceans, 
and break against the shores ; and whatever 
power is thus consumed must be drawn 
directly from the rotational energy of our 
globe. To put it in another way, we might 
say that the tides produce a certain amount 
of friction, and this friction, of course, tends 
to retard the velocity of the earth's rotation, 
which must then be slowly abating ; and if 
the speed be decreasing, the length of the 
day must be increasing. 

The connection between the lengthening 
of the day and the acceleration of the moon 
in her orbit, is apparent. Having a longer 
time in which to accompUsh her journey, she 



Our Celestial Home, 69 

will be further advanced than if the days 
were still of the same length as in the age of 
Ilipparchus. It is impossible to compute 
from theory how much the effect of the tides 
on the rotation of the earth should be ; but 
from the acceleration of the moon's motion, 
it is evident it can not be mor^ than ten 
seconds per century. Al chough this is so 
minute a quantity that the most perfect clock 
could never detect the variation from abso- 
lute uniformity, yet if it is to go on forever, 
it must in the course of ages seriously affect 
the condition of the earth as a habitable 
world. But science sets a definite limit to 
this lengthening of the day. A time will 
finally come, though how many millions of 
years hence we can not even conjecture, when 
the earth will rotate on its axis in exactly the 
same period in which the moon completes a 
revolution. The same hemisphere of the 
earth will then always be turned towards the 
moon; and though the tides will still be 
raised, they will no longer sweep around the 
globe. The expenditure of force from this 



70 Our Celestial Home, 

cause will, therefore, cease, and with it the 
decrease of the speed of rotation. The earth's 
day and month will then correspond, just as, 
in fact, they do at the present time upon the 
moon. 

It will be noticed that this change, which 
we have here sketched, in no way affects 
the stability of the solar system. Indeed, 
the investigations that have led to our 
wonderful knowledge of the effects of the 
tides, have also led to the discovery of a 
grand principle known as the " conservation 
of the moment of momentum," which teaches 
that, whatever changes may take place in the 
distribution of this " moment of momentum " 
in the system, none of it can ever be dissi- 
mted or lost. 

We must, however, notice one other in- 
stance where an apparent evidence of decay 
has been by some supposed to exist. This 
was in the case of Encke's comet, a body 
which revolves entirely within the limits of 
the solar system, and which showed such 
deviations from its computed orbit, that 



Our Celestial Home. 71 

Olbers, to account for them, suggested the 
famous hypothesis of a resisting medium in 
space. This medium was supposed to be so 
rare that its effect on the massive planets was 
not perceptible, while the comet, being very 
light, would experience a retardation. A 
recent investigation of the motions of this 
comet by Von Asten confirms the conclusions 
of Encke, that it was subject to a retarding 
action prior to 1865 ; but during the period 
from 1865 to 1871, within which the comet 
made two entire revolutions, no evidence 
whatever of any resistance was discovered. 
Between 1871 and 1875 a slight retardation 
was again observed. But even were we cer- 
tain that the comet met with a uniform re- 
sistance to its motion, a medium pervading 
space would not be the only cause which 
might produce it; and when we take into 
account the fact that other comets, so far as 
is known, exhibit no such anomalies, we are 
forced to abandon the hypothesis of Olbers. 

The solar system in respect to its motions 
shows no signs of decrepitude. Tlie planets 



Y2 Our Celestial Home. 

roll on in their swift courses unchanged by 
the flight of ages, declaring with each return- 
ing period both the evanescence of time and 
the eternity of God. 

We have as yet, however, considered but 
a single isolated system of the universe. Let 
us grant what, indeed, we have no reason to 
question, that every other system is as accu- 
rately adjusted as our own, so that each sepa- 
rate family of worlds is perfect in itself. 
There still remains the question, how are 
these systems connected with each other? 
Does the force of gravity which controls the 
revolving planets, extend still further and 
bind together the distant stars into one 
gigantic brotherhood of suns? Very much 
has been written upon this theme of late 
years. The daring conjecture of Kant that 
the stellar universe bore a close resemblance 
to the solar system, and that the stars would 
all be found to be revolving in the plane of 
the milky way about some common center, 
has furnished the basis for endless speculation. 
Lambert elaborated the ideas of Kant still 



Out Celestial Home, Y3 

more, considering the universe to be formed 
of systems rising one above another in rank. 
First come the planets with their attendant 
moons, then the suns controlling the revolv- 
ing planets. These solar systems he imagined 
to be grouped into still greater systems which 
appear to us as clusters of stars, and the 
clusters again to revolve in yet grander orbits, 
the whole making up the galaxy, near the 
center of which our own sun lies. Beyond 
this mighty system of systems he placed 
other galaxies, the combined light of whose 
myriad suns sometimes appears in our tele- 
scopes as a faint spot of nebulosity. The 
smaller systems of Lambert's scheme all 
have, as we know, a, massive central body 
controlling the movements of the orbs that 
revolve about it. This feature he extended 
to the larger systems, and conjectured that 
the center of each was occupied by an im- 
mense but opaque and, therefore, invisible 
body, and that thus all were bound together 
by the universal law of gravitation. 

All this was mere speculation, not based 



74 Out Celestial Home. 

at all on observation ; bnt more recently 
Madler, the Dorpat astronomer, has attempted 
to show by an actual examination of the 
proper motions of the stars that they are all 
revolving in definite orbits, and that the 
center of motion for our stellar universe is 
Alcyone, the brightest star of the Pleiades. 
The high standing of its author, and the 
grandeur of the theory itself; have led to its 
almost universal adoption by popular writers 
on astronomy; but it is, nevertheless, as 
utterly without foundation as the wild dreams 
of Kant and Lambert. Professor Simon 
Newcomb, who is probably the highest au- 
thority on astronomy in this country, styles 
it a baseless speculation to which astronomers 
have never given the slightest weight."^ 

What then is the system of the universe ? 
If the stars do not revolve about some center, 
what keeps them from gravitating together % 
To these questions astronomy can at present 
give only a partial reply. It is in general the 
motions of the stars which prevent them from 

* See Newcomb's ** Popular Astronomy," p. 454. 



Our Celestial Hom^e. T5 

falling to a common center ; but the precise 
character of these motions is unknown. So 
far as observation can inform us, the stars are 
advancing in straight lines. They are also 
moving in every direction, and with various 
velocities. The only trace of regularity that 
can be discovered in their movements, is a 
general drift from one part of the heavens 
towards the opposite point, a drift which is 
undoubtedly due to the motion of our own 
sun. We also find in certain groups of stars 
a community of proper motion, indicating 
that they are traveling together through 
space. The Pleiades afford a conspicuous 
example of this. The triangulation of this 
group recently completed by Dr. Elkin, and 
compared with a similar triangulation made 
by Bessel half a century ago, yields no evi- 
dence of any internal motions in the cluster. 
The stars composing it seem to form a rigid 
system, which is, however, very slowly drift- 
ing along through the celestial regions. 

While modern research has to some extent 
confirmed the idea of Lambert that the stars 



Y6 Our Celestial Rome. 

were arranged in groups, we have as yet no 
proof of any revolutions taking place within 
these aggregations of stars. It is undoubtedly 
too soon to predict with certainty that no 
such revolutions ever will be discovered ; for 
in the case of the binary stars there is good 
reason to believe that the orbits are some- 
times so vast that a single circuit may require 
thousands of years. It is not beyond the 
bounds of possibility then, that some of the 
star clusters may form veritable systems of 
revolving suns, their motions during the brief 
interval in which they have been observed 
being so minute as to be completely masked 
by the inevitable errors of observation. 

But with respect to the stellar universe at 
large, the hypothesis of revolution about a 
common center is disproved not merely by 
negative testimony. There are certain phe- 
nomena among the stars which are utterly 
irreconcilable with such a theory. The first 
of these phenomena is the extreme irregu- 
larity of their proper motions. If the stars 
moved in orbits around a central body, as the 



Our Celestial Home. Tl 

planets move around the sun, we should be 
able to discover a marked uniformity in the 
motions of all the stars in the same part of 
the sky. But instead of this the motion of 
each individual star is in general totally differ- 
ent from that of its neighbors. An argument 
more convincing still, perhaps, is to be found 
in the very rapid proper motions of certain 
stars. The velocities of some of these stars 
are, in fact, inexplicable according to the 
theory of gravitation. In order to understand 
this subject it is necessary to remember that 
the velocity which an attracting body can 
impart is limited by its mass. If a stone falls 
to the ground, the speed it acquires depends 
on the height from which it has been drop- 
ped. But even could it start from an infinite 
height, its velocity on reaching the earth's 
surface would not be infinite. The highest 
speed which the earth could impart would be 
only about seven miles a second. The sun, 
having a mass vastly greater, would cause a 
correspondingly swifter velocity; so that a 
body might strike its surface with a speed of 



78 Our Celestial Home. 

nearly four hundred miles a second. But 
only close to its surface could tlie sun cause 
such high velocities. At the distance of the 
earth's orbit the maximum velocity due to 
the sun would be twenty-six miles per second, 
at Neptune less than five miles per second, 
and at the distance of the nearest fixed star 
only about three miles per minute. 

When we find a body moving very rapidly, 
we naturally conclude that it is quite near to 
some attracting center. A comet "in the 
full flush of its perihehon swoop '' may travel 
two hundred miles or more in a second ; but 
as it leaves the sun Its speed quickly decreases, 
until at the outer end of its journey it loiters 
along most leisurely. W^hile swift-winged 
Mercury fairly flies around its orbit, traveling 
thirty miles a second, distant Neptune courses 
majestically onward with but little more than 
one-tenth of that speed. The heavier the 
central orb, the greater would be the velocity 
of a body revolving about it. Sirius is the 
most massive of all the stars which astrono- 
mers have as yet been able to weigh ; but even 



Our Celestial Home. 79 

in this case the speed of its companion sun, 
completing its revolution in the compara- 
tively brief time of fifty years, is only about 
fourteen miles per second. 

Now there are stars in the sky vrith veloci- 
ties ranging from one hundred to two hun- 
'dred miles per second, and in all probability 
even greater than this. If they are revolving 
in orbits, what power controls them ? Since 
there are no visible stars of such preponder- 
ating size as would be demanded to restrain 
these flying suns, it may naturally be asked, 
have we not here evidence of the existence of 
Lambert's opaque attracting centers ? To this 
we must emphatically answer no. These stars 
have been observed for over a century, long 
enough to prove that they are revolving in no 
contracted orbits. .They appear to be flying 
straight onward through space, and if revolv- 
ing at all it must be in gigantic circuits ; and 
any attracting center powerful enough to 
cont^rol their motions, would soon drag all the 
elow-moving stars in its neighborhood from 
their paths, and quickly subvert the system. 



80 Our Celestial Home. 

But again, it may be asked, if no single 
body would fulfill the requirements, may not 
the combined attraction of all the other stars 
be the force which guides these careering 
suns ? Professor Newcomb has investigated 
this question with regard to the star known 
as Groombridge 1830. Assuming that the 
stellar universe within the range of the most 
powerful telescopes, contains one hundred 
millions of stars, and that these stars are on 
the average five times as heavy as the sun, he 
finds that the maximum velocity which this 
system could impress upon a body, would be 
twenty-five miles a second. Any greater 
speed than this would cause the body to pass 
completely through the system, and finally 
to fly off into infinite space never to return. 
But the star Groombridge 1830 is moving at 
least two hundred miles per second, or eight 
times the highest calculated speed. The laws 
of motion show that to impart eight times a 
given velocity requires sixty-four times the 
attracting mass. We see, therefore, that this 
star is utterly beyond the control of the at- 



Our Celestial Home. 81 

tractive force of the visible universe. Pro- 
fessor Newcomb thus concisely puts it : 

" Either the bodies which compose our uni- 
verse are vastly more massive and numerous 
than telescopic examination seems to indicate, 
or 1830 Groombridge is a runaway star, fly- 
ing on a boundless course through infinite 
space with such momentum that the attrac- 
tion of all the bodies of the universe can 
never stop it." ^ 

This, though perhaps the most remarkable, 
is by no means the only star of which a simi- 
lar statement might be predicated. Whence 
did these careering suns receive the impetus 
that has sent them whirling through the 
abysm of space with such uncontrollable 
speed? From what unknown realms have 
they come, and whither are they going? 
Before these queries science is dumb. While 
these swift stars are sweeping along through 
our own stellar universe, the astronomer can 
determine their velocities and map their 
courses ; but when, after the lapse of millions 

*Newcomb's "Popular Astronomy," p. 488. 
6 



82 Our Celestial Home. 

of years, they fade from his view and pass 
beyond the ken of his greatest telescopes, 
then he can no longer predict their track, 
for the laws of their motion are unknown. 
Whether they will ever again return, and, if 
so, in how many countless millenniums, all 
his science is powerless to foretell. 

It is evident that our present knowledge of 
the system of the starry heavens is very im- 
perfect. We can say with a degree of cer- 
tainty that all the stars are moving, some 
slowly and some rapidly, and that our own 
sun partakes of this general motion, and is 
majestically sailing onward at the rate of a 
hundred million miles or more a year; but 
what determines the amount and direction of 
these motions, and whether their character is 
oscillating or continually progressive, we can 
only conjecture. Here we approach the arcana 
of nature, and the vail of mystery hangs darkly 
before us. To those who have been entranced 
with the sublime ideas of Madler, this may 
appear like a plunge backward into chaos. 
But because we can not measure its orbits 



Our Celestial Home. 83 

and unravel the complexity of its motions, 
shall we, therefore, believe that no order ex- 
ists in the cosmos ? Shall we set up our weak 
intellects as the standard of all knowledge and 
wisdom in the universe ? When we find per- 
fection in the minor systems, we surely should 
not look for confusion in those that are larger 
and grander. If the planets are fitted to run 
their circuits forever, we can scarcely believe 
that the mighty suns are flying about at ran- 
dom, and may at any moment plunge into 
each other and bring ruin and desolation into 
nature's fair domain. 

In conclusion then, we are entitled to say 
that, so far as astronomy has been able to 
solve the problem of celestial motion, the 
machinery of the heavens is absolutely per- 
fect. There is no gradual loss of momentum, 
no slow decline in the power of gravity, and 
no danger of collision and wreck. The very 
fact that we find among the stars velocities 
exceeding the capability of our mechanics to 
account for, should only prove to us that the 
energies of that supernal realm are on a scale 



84 Our Celestial Home. 

commensurate with its infinite expanse. The 
order that reigns throughout the length and 
breadth of heaven's unbounded sweep may 
far transcend the utmost stretch of our im- 
agination. The human intellect may never 
here on earth rise to a comprehension of its 
grandeur and sublimity ; but when we enter 
upon the better life, and are enabled to pur- 
sue our study of God's universe from higher 
stand-points and with angelic assistance, we 
may then come to know the full riches of 
His wisdom as exhibited in the works of 
creation, as well as in the nobler works of 
providence and redemption. 



STABILITY OF THE UNIVERSE AS 
TO FORCE. 



V. 



STABILITY OF THE UNIYEKSE AS 
TO FOKCE. 

Having seen that there is no good reason 
to question the stability of the universe in 
its present form so far as motion is concerned, 
we next take up the other branch of our in- 
quiry as to the gradual cooling of the indi- 
vidual bodies in this universe. We here ap- 
proach one of the most obscure and difficult 
problems of cosmical physics. Science now 
teaches that there is a constant dissipation of 
energy going on in nature, that light and 
heat can not be produced except by the ex- 
penditure of force, and that the supply of 
force in each body is strictly limited. Take 
the sun as an example. The gravitating to- 
gether of its gaseous mass produces heat. This 
heat is radiated into space ; but the cooling 
thus brought about leads to renewed contrac- 
tion, and the heat generated by this contraction 

(87) 



88 Our Celestial Home. 

suflSces to maintain the solar temperature. 
A gaseous body, therefore, though con- 
stantly losing heat, does not necessarily grow 
cooler. It must, however, constantly grow 
smaller ; and when it has contracted to a cer- 
tain extent, it will solidify, and the produc- 
tion of heat from gravity then ceases. Up 
to this time there has been a loss not of 
actual, but of potential heat; that is, the 
amount of energy which could be changed 
into heat has been all the time lessening; 
but after the body has solidified, its tempera- 
ture begins to fall, for the heat that is radi- 
ated away can not be renewed by further 
contraction. 

In a condition more or less resembling this 
we now find the earth. The interior of the 
globe is very hot, as is shown by the phenom- 
ena of hot springs, geysers and volcanoes. 
The temperature is known to rise as we de- 
scend into the earth at such a rate, that at a 
depth of one hundred miles or less we should 
reach the melting point of most of the sub- 
stances which compose its surface. Doubtless 



Our Celestial Home. 89 

the immense pressure keeps them from lique- 
fying, but the heat must, nevertheless, be 
intense. This heat is slowly but constantly 
conducted to the surface and lost by radia- 
tion. With this gradual cooling of the earth's 
interior, a corresponding absorption of water 
and air must take place ; until finally, unless 
some power interpose to arrest the course of 
nature, our beautiful planet must sink into 
the arid condition exhibited by the moon, a 
condition far more gloomy than primeval 
chaos, because there is in it no promise for 
the future. Earth's history will be accom- 
plished, its usefulness ended. It will still roll 
onward through the sky, but its life will be 
quenched, it will be an extinct world. 

Science tells us that even the glorious sun 
must eventually come to this sad fate. He 
may continue for millions of years to radiate 
his bounteous supply of light and heat. But 
his energy is constantly ebbing with the ages ; 
and by and by he will go out in darkness, 
leaving his retinue of worlds, all of them per- 
haps long since cold and dead, to pursue their 



90 Our Celestial Home. 

gloomy courses by the glimmering light of 
the stars. And this starlight will grow dim 
and ever dimmer, as one by one the lamps of 
heaven burn low and expire ; until at last the 
night of death shall settle over the universe. 
SucL, according to the most advanced 
science, is the end towards which the whole 
vast structure of the heavens is tending. Pro- 
fessor Newcomb aptly illustrates this by a 
clock which one might find in a deserted 
building. He sees the pendulum swinging 
and the hands moving ; and if he is ignorant 
of mechanics, he may fail to understand why 
it should not go on running forever. "But 
let him be instructed in the laws of mechanics, 
and let him inquire into the force which keeps 
the hands and the pendulum in motion. He 
will then find that this force is transmitted to 
the pendulum through a train of wheels, each 
of which moves many times slower than that 
in front of it, and that the first wheel is acted 
upon by a weight with which it is connected 
by a cord. He can see a slow motion in the 
wheel which acts on the pendulum, and per- 



Our Celestial Home. 91 

haps in the one next behind it ; while duriDg 
the short time he has for observation he can 
see no motion in the others. But he will 
know that they must all be moving; and 
tracing back the action through the train of 
wheels, he sees that the motion of the first 
one must be kept up by a gradual falling of 
the weight. He can then say with entire cer- 
tainty : ' I do not see this weight fall, but I 
know it must be gradually approaching the 
bottom, because I see a system of moving 
machinery the progress of which necessarily 
involves such a slow falling of the weight. 
Knowing the number of teeth in each wheel 
and pinion, I can compute how many inches 
it falls each day ; and seeing how much room 
it has to fall in, I can tell how many days it 
will take to reach the bottom. When this is 
done I see that the clock must stop, because 
it is only the falling of the w^^ight that keeps 
the pendulum in motion. Moreover, I see 
that the weight must have been higher yester- 
day than it is to-day, so that I can calculate 
backward to a time when it was at the top of 



92 Our Celestial Home. 

its course. Thus, altliough no motion is ap- 
parent, I see with the eye of reason that the 
weight is running through a certain course 
from the top of the clock to the bottom ; that 
some power must have wound it up and 
started it; and that unless the same power 
intervenes again, the weight must reach the 
bottom in a certain number of days, and the 
clock must then stop.' " ^ 

The falling of the weight corresponds in 
nature to the transformation of gravity into 
heat and the radiation of that heat into space. 
The force thus dissipated is not supposed to 
be annihilated ; for that would be contrary to 
the scientific philosophy of the day, which 
teaches the indestructibility of force no less 
than that of matter. But, until very recently 
at least, science has not been able to discover 
any method by which this diffused heat can 
be gathered up and returned to the bodies 
whence it was emitted. If the vast mechan- 
ism of the universe is destined finally to run 
down, if its Maker has wound it up and left 

*Newc(>inb's *• Popular Astronomy," p. 499. 



Out Celestial Home, 93 

it to go by itself and to stop wlien the original 
•supply of energy has been spent, it is evident 
that the eternal home of the soul can not be 
found within its bounds. But such is not the 
Christian view ; neither, I may say, is it the 
most scientific view. Nearly all schools of 
thought admit the necessity of assuming a 
great first cause ; and if we assume one cause 
for the origin of the universe, why conceive 
another for its sustenance? If it was God 
who created, why not acknowledge that it is 
God who upholds ? To throw aside the first 
cause and introduce secondary causes, is an 
unnecessary and, therefore, unscientific pro- 
ceeding. To the Christian all force is but the 
power of God, and natural laws are only the 
methods by which He chooses to work. 

In this view of nature our clock may be 
continually running down, but its Maker is 
present to wind it up. That He will do this 
appears probable both in the light of reason 
and revelation. We have seen that, so far as 
astronomy has been able to interpret the 
system of the heavenly bodies, their motions 



94 Our Celestial Home. 

contain no seeds of decay, they are fitted to 
be perpetual. That the Creator should build 
this mighty complex structure, and so deli- 
cately adjust and balance its forces that it will 
continue to move in unbroken harmony for- 
ever, but allow the light and life with which 
He has endowed it to wane and go out, is 
utterly repugnant to all reason. Such has not 
been the history of God's methods in the past. 
Evolution, and not degeneration, is the lesson 
we are taught by nature. The lower has 
always preceded the higher. The inorganic 
kingdom came first in the chronicles of our 
globe; then the kingdom of life was intro- 
duced, beginning with its lowest forms and 
gradually ascending the scale of being ; and 
last of all, and rising far above all that had 
gone before, came the spiritual kingdom. 
Have we now reached the end of the upward 
progression, and are we to expect deteriora- 
tion and decay? Is it not more reasonable 
to look for higher and grander developments, 
not the abolition of the old and the bringing 
in of a new creation, but the regeneration of 



Our Celestial Home. 95 

the old through the introduction of more 
potent principles ? 

But we are not left to the light of reason 
on this subject. Revelation positively de- 
clares that there is to be a renewal of this 
globe, that " the heavens being on fire shall 
be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fer- 
vent heat, the earth and the works that are 
therein shall be burnt up "; but that out of 
the ruins we are to " look for new heavens 
and a new earth." According to the common 
interpretation the word "heavens" in this 
connection refers to the atmospheric heavens 
belonging to our globe. This world, then, is 
*^kept in store, reserved unto fire." The 
declaration is too plain to be doubted or ex- 
plained away. But the doctrine of the dissi- 
pation of energy points to a fate far different. 
The globe is all the time cooling. It has even 
now reached a stage when the internal heat 
has so far subsided as to render any general 
conflagration extremely improbable, and the 
likelihood of such a catastrophe steadily de- 
creases with the lapse of time. "All things 



96 Our Celestial Home. 

continue as ttey were from the beginning of 
the creation." Is it any wonder that scoffers 
say, " Where is the promise of His coming? " 

But God reigneth: this is His universe: 
the powers of nature are in His hands, ^nd He 
can and will fulfill His word. Mystery sur- 
rounds us on every hand. What we know 
about the universe is only as a drop in the 
ocean to what we do not know. How foolish 
and simple, then, to dream that nothing can 
happen besides what our weak science can 
foresee and predict ! 

Even as we write there come the results of 
recent investigations by J. Norman Lockyer,* 
one of England^s foremost spectroscopists, 
which throw new light on the constitution of 
the universe ; and it would seem that science 
herself has at last gained a mountain height 
whence she can catch a distant gleam of that 
world-burning so long ago foretold in sacred 
writ. The researches of Mr. Lockyer show 
that the nebulae are closely allied to comets ; 
but that comets are formed of meteoric ma- 



* i( 



*'The Observatory," Jan. 1888, p. 79. 



Out Celestial Home, 97 

terials is already a well-established fact. Our 
ideas of tlie constitution of the nebulae must, 
therefore, be modified. Instead of consisting 
of masses of glowing gas, their fundamental 
components are meteorites. Stars whose 
spectra consist of bright lines, are also sup- 
posed by Mr. Lockyer to possess a similar 
constitution. Certain it is that these stars 
form in some sense a connecting link between 
the nebulae and stars of the solar type. On 
this theory the new stars which occasionally 
flash out in the sky, are caused by the collision 
of two oppositely moving meteor swarms, or 
perhaps, in some cases, by the sudden over- 
whelming of a star already partially or wholly 
cooled by one of these " rushing cosmical 
clouds.'^ "The mystery attending the ap- 
pearance of new stars is at any rate largely 
dissipated. Their outbreaks merely exagger- 
ate enormously the phenomenon of the earth's 
encounter with meteoric streams." 

The general conclusions arrived at by Mr. 
Lockyer may be thus summarized : " All self- 
luminous bodies in space are composed of 
7 



98 Out Celestial Home. 

meteorites variously aggregated, and at vari- 
ous stages of temperature depending upon the 
frequency and violence of their mutual col- 
lisions. Comets, nebulae and bright-line stars, 
including most long-period variables, are to 
be regarded as veritable meteor swarms ; they 
are made up, that is to say, of an indefinite 
multitude of separate and, in a sense, inde- 
pendent solid bodies, bathed in evolved gases, 
and glowing with the heat due to their 
arrested motions. Stars, on the other hand, 
of the Sirian and solar types (constituting the 
only true suns) are vaporized meteor swarms : 
their high temperatures represent the sur- 
rendered velocities of myriads of jostling 
particles, drawn together by the victorious 
power of gravity." "^ 

These small solid particles, which we term 
meteorites, thus form the fundamental atoms 
from which the universe is built up. They 
are undoubtedly scattered more or less densely 
throughout all space, but are much more 
numerous in some regions than in others. 

*^'The Observatory," Jan. 1888, p. 84. 



Ov/p Celestial Home. 99 

That the milky way is a region of condensa- 
tion for meteoric swarms as well as for stars, 
is proved beyond rational doubt from the 
almost universal association of gaseous and 
temporary stars with the galactic stream. 
It appears certain that our system is now 
winging its flight through a part of space 
which is comparatively barren; but if we 
look onward along the pathway of the sun, 
we find that it tends towards one of the rich- 
est regions in the heavens. When we shall 
reach those sidereal tracts, or what will come 
to pass as we enter the glorious star depths of 
the galaxy, science can not tell us ; but it is 
reasonable to assume that as we approach 
them the probability of encountering clouds 
of meteoric matter will increase. Should 
such an event take place, and our system 
meet and pass through an immense meteor 
swarm, imagination would fail to picture the 
terror and sublimity of the scene which the 
inhabitants of the earth must then witness. 
The showers of shooting stars that have from 
time to time visited the world, filling the be- 



100 Our Celestial Home. 

holders with consternation, would be as the 
gentle dew to th€ terrific thunder-storm, com- 
pared with the fiery deluge that would in- 
volve the earth and moon and possibly the 
other planets in a general conflagration. " The 
heavens being on fire would be dissolved, 
and the elements would melt with fervent 
heat." 

Not only does this meteoric theory bring 
to Kght a possible, not to say probable, cause, 
which may at any future time destroy the 
world by fire ; it also suggests regeneration. 
Here, as so often before, we find that after 
seeming collision and conflict, the highest de- 
velopments of science bring us back to the 
sacred word. Revelation declares that this 
earth is to be renewed by fire. The doctrine 
of the dissipation of energy denies, perhaps 
not the possibility, but at all events the prob- 
ability of any such occurrence. But at length 
new light dawns : other agencies are seen to 
be at work in the universe. In a class of 
bodies hitherto considered extremely insig- 
nificant, is found the efficient cause of some 



Our Celestial Home, 101 

of the mightiest changes that are going on in 
the celestial realms. Every meteorite which 
impinges upon the earth's atmosphere, re- 
stores a certain amount of the heat that has 
been lost. The very agents of destruction 
would, therefore, be agents also of regener- 
ation. The fiery storm which devastates the 
globe will return its dissipated energy and 
revivify the whole system, so that the new 
heavens and the new earth shall once more 
become fit abodes for life. . . 

We thus find in this new theory of Lock- 
yer, a distant hint, at least, of the method by 
which its Creator may wind up the celestial 
mechanism and restore its slowly wasting 
force. It appears not unhkely that these 
drifting clouds of cosmical particles are the 
agents for gathering up the heat radiated 
from the larger bodies, either to return it to 
suns and planets already growing old, or else 
to utilize it in the formation of new systems. 
Thus the insignificant meteorite, itself a pro- 
duct of destruction, may also be an instru- 
ment of restoration, and serve as the material 



102 Our Celestial Home. 

link between the decay and creation of suc- 
cessive generations of celestial worlds. 

It is, of course, to be remembered that thi.« 
new theory, here briefly sketched, may have 
to be modified. Deeper research will un- 
doubtedly throw clearer light on points now 
involved in obscurity. But opinion can not 
stand where it stood before : current ideas 
respecting the constitution of the universe 
must undergo marked alteration. Perhaps 
the most important lesson to be gathered 
from this whole investigation, is the limita- 
tion of our knowledge, and the fact that God 
can work in a thousand ways unknown and 
unsuspected by our prof oundest science. 



VI. 

CONCLUSION. 



VI. 

CONCLUSIOK 

We have now completed the discussion of 
our subject in its scientific aspects, and have 
shown that there is no insuperable argument 
against heaven being within the bounds of 
the astral universe. Assuming that the Bible 
teaches the materiality of heaven, we first ex- 
amined the extent of the celestial realms, dis- 
covering that we are encompassed on all sides 
by an expanse which to our finite conceptions 
is absolutely boundless. Nor have we any 
cause for thinking that it ceases at the limit 
to which the telescope has penetrated. Rea- 
son tells us that were we placed at that limit, 
we should be as far from the boundary as 
before ^ Within these far-stretching realms 
we have seen that there is an almost infini- 
tude of glorious worlds, and that beyond all 

(105) 



106 Our Celestial Home. 

reasonable doubt many of tliem are now hab- 
itable and many more will become so in the 
future. This very evolution of the heavenly 
bodies, however, by virtue of which they pass 
through one stage after another, reaching at 
length a condition suitable for the support of 
life, suggests the possibility that they may 
experience yet other changes, and finally sink 
into darkness and death. A most careful 
examination of this whole subject has shown 
that the only element of decay in the uni- 
verse that science can point out is the secular 
cooling of the individual bodies. But even 
here light begins to break, affording glimpses 
of higher laws that doubtless hold in check and 
control the lower forces of disintegration. As 
in the human body the vital powers dominate 
the inorganic forces, which if left to them- 
selves would speedily destroy the organism ; 
so in the universe we are led to recognize a 
more potent principle which is able to reverse 
the action of the physical forces, causing 
them to build up instead of tearing down. 
The vitality of the body, because of the weak- 



Our Celestial Home. 107 

ening eJBfects of sin, will finally decay and 
yield the victory to its opponents ; but the 
life-force of the universe is immutable and 
undying, for it is none other than the omnip- 
otent power of eternal Jehovah. 

Were we left, therefore, entirely to the 
light of reason, we should be justified in as- 
serting that the weight of probability lies in 
favor of heaven constituting part of the ma- 
terial universe. The law of continuity for- 
bids the supposition that we are to be trans- 
ferred at death to a sphere of existence so 
utterly disconnected with the present as the 
popular ideas make heaven to be. Except 
for the eradication of sin, our natures are not 
to be changed, and why, then, should our 
surroundings be so totally altered? It is 
only sin and the consequent curse that make 
this globe other than paradise. Before evil 
entered, it was a portion of heaven ; and 
when it shall have been purified by fire, 
Revelation tells us that it shall again take its 
place as the abode of righteousness and be- 
come one of the many mansions which Christ 



108 Our Celestial Rome. 

is preparing for His people. The other 
mansions of the Father's house lie all about 
us. Nightly we can look out and see their 
flashing lights beckoning us upward. Some 
of those mansions are now ready ; some are 
in process of preparation. That these heav- 
enly habitations may wax old and need reno- 
vation, is not improbable. Such seems to be 
a general law of nature. Summer is followed 
by winter, but only that spring may again 
renew the face of the earth. So each planet 
and system may experience a cosmic winter 
and sink into coldness and death, to be reviv- 
ified and restored in God's own time and 
way. But like birds of passage, the immor- 
tal inhabitants will soar to sunnier climes, 
and thus dwell amid eternal spring. 

The belief that the whole universe consti- 
tutes heaven is by no means new. It has 
been held by many of the deepest thinkers 
not only of modern times, but of past ages. 
Indeed, as we have already shown, it is diffi- 
cult to conceive how careful students of 
Scripture can gather from it any other doc- 



Our Celestial Home, 109 

trine. In the very first verse of the Bible 
the heavens and the earth are linked together 
in one creative act ; and all the way through 
the word which is applied to the starry uni- 
verse is also used, and predominantly in the 
plural number, to designate the abode of the 
blest. It is, of course, a well-known fact that 
the Jews recognized three heavens, the region 
of the atmosphere, the starry firmament, and 
the third heaven or '^leaven of heavens," 
where God has placed His throne and mani- 
fests His glory ; but it does not appear that 
this distinction was clearly based on Bible 
teaching, though it may, nevertheless, con- 
tain a suggestion of the truth. The figure of 
a city is employed so often to set forth the 
glories of heaven, that it would seem there 
must be foundation for the simile in fact. 
This idea can scarcely be reconciled with the 
doctrine that heaven is simply the universe 
as a whole. But as Jerusalem of old, whither 
the tribes went up, was the capital of the 
earthly Canaan, why may not its antitype, 
Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the 



110 Our Celestial Home. 

heavenly Jerusalem, be the heaven of heavens, 
the mighty capital of creation, where Jehovah 
holds His court, where there is no need of 
sun or moon because the Shekinah, the visi- 
ble glory of God, enshrouds it, and in the 
light of which the nations of the saved shall 
walk ? Here will be the general assembly of 
the saints ; here the spirits of just men made 
perfect will hold communion with the in- 
numerable company of angels, and unite with 
them in worshiping Ood, the Judge of all 

But the soul needs solitude as well as 
society, and so "from the scenes of surpass- 
ing glory and from the public services of 
unutterable joy that crowd heaven," the 
redeemed will doubtless often retire to the 
outlying mansions to engage in silent prayer 
and meditation. And why should we con- 
sider that prayer and praise will constitute the 
only employment of the citizens of heaven ? 
Are not the devout study of God's works and 
the contemplation of the wisdom and good- 
ness therein displayed, as truly honoring to 
the Creator as more formal worship? Not 



Out Celestial Home. Ill 

the least potent argument for the doctrine of 
a material heaven among the stars, is the thirst 
for greater knowledge and the longing for a 
deeper insight into the mysteries of nature 
that every thoughtful person experiences. 
The further we penetrate in our researches, 
the vaster appears the great unexplored be- 
yond. The student in every department of 
science recognizes the illimitable sweep of 
knowledge that stretches away beyond the 
utmost bounds of his intellectual vision. Here 
is occupation worthy of an immortal life, em- 
ployment which shall lead the soul ever up- 
ward to higher planes of being, ever nearer 
to the great heart of goodness that throbs 
through every pulse of nature, ever onward 
along the path that terminates only in the in- 
most sanctuary of Omniscience. And shall 
we be called to leave forever this temple in- 
stinct with the wisdom of Divinity, while yet 
we stand at its very portal? Shall we be 
transferred to another and utterly separate 
state of existence, before we have begun to 
learn the lessons or solve the mysteries or 



112 Our Celestial Home. 

drink in the beauty and grandeur and glory 
of the universe which is now our home ? 

This search after knowledge by the ran- 
somed spirit will not be merely to gratify an 
intellectual thirst. It will be prompted by 
the longing of the soul to know more of the 
infinite perfections of its Maker. If here 
on earth the reverent mind "looks through 
nature up to nature's God," how much more 
in that world where the clouds of sin are dis- 
pelled and we no longer " see through a glass 
darkly " ! The heavens declare the glory, not 
only of God the Father, but of God the Son ; 
for Christ, we are told, was the active agent in 
creation as well as in redemption. " Bj Him 
were all things created that are in heaven and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
they be thrones or dominions or principalities 
or powers, all things were created by Him 
and for Him." Our Lord prayed, " Father, 
I will that they also whom Thou hast given 
me be with me where I am, that they may 
behold my glory." To behold this glory of 
Christ will be to contemplate the wisdom and 



Out Celestial Home, 113 

goodness whicli He has manifested in tlie exe- 
cution of the divine decrees both of creation 
and providence, to study the geography and 
the history of the universe. 

Doubtless the heavenly life will be many- 
sided. It will not all be public worship, nor 
all retirement and meditation, nor all intel- 
lectual investigation, nor all social intercourse ; 
but these occupations will be combined in due 
proportion to build up a life complete and full. 
The soul, no longer hampered by weakness or 
limited by want of time, will sweep onward 
along a course of symmetrical development 
and growth in knowledge and holiness and 
love, a course which will shine ever brighter 
and brighter as it draws nearer to the ineflEa- 
ble glory of the InjQnite. But this pathway 
of eternal progress we may enter upon in the 
present life. Death will not break the con- 
tinuity of existence, but only widen the soul's 
capacity and its sphere of activity. The same 
lines of thought and study, the same far- 
reaching problems in astronomy and phi- 
losophy, in physics and metaphysics, which 
8 



114 Our Celestial Home. 

engage our minds here may still claim our 
attention over yonder. The same blissful 
friendships and hallowed loves that cheer and 
brighten our earthly lives, will blossom fairer 
still in that immortal clime. The same God 
and Savior, " whom having not seen we love, 
and in whom, though now we see Him not, 
yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory," we there shall worship 
face to face, and beholding His glory shall be 
" changed into the same image from glory to 
glory." 

How blessed to feel that heaven is not some 
far-off dim and shadowy state, an unseen and 
invisible universe, where nothing is real and 
substantial, and where the soul must flit about 
in an ethereal void without locality, distance 
or time ; but that it is rather the great and 
glorious universe of God about us, embracing 
millions of magnificent worlds, ^' where there 
will be solid foot-hold to walk on, heavenly 
air to feed our inspirations, light to break in 
beauty upon our eyelids, sounds as soft as 
symphonies to warble upon our hearing^ odors 



Our Celestial Home. 115 

sweeter than the scent of roses, fruits more 
fragrant than the growth of earthly paradise, 
and tangible objects in profusion of the fairest 
forms and qualities to gratify and delight us. 
Grass will grow, flowers will bloom, fruits 
will ripen, forests will wave, rivers will flow 
and rivulets dance, high hills will tower, val- 
leys will wind and plains expand, and beyond 
them all, far as the eye can reach, vast blue 
oceans will forever roll and sparkle in the 
sunlight of eternity."* Such we believe 
will be the ravishing scenery of the heavenly 
Canaan amid which we shall rove in the com- 
panionship of our loved ones, of the saints of 
all ages and of the holy angels ; such the pas- 
tures green and the waters still of the sunrise 
land, beside which the Good Shepherd will 
lead the lambs of the upper fold. 

Oh ! how glorious the thought that yonder 
stars which nightly blaze in the depths of the 
empyrean, are the lights of heaven ever shin- 
ing down upon us, the glittering lamps of the 
many mansions streaming across the darkness 



*«< 



The World to Come," p. 316. 



116 Our Celestial Home. 

of our pilgrim way ; and that ever and anon 
our eyes may even catch a distant gleam of 
the radiance of the celestial city itself, where 
dwelleth in light unapproachable the blessed 
and only Potentate, the King of kings and 
Lord of lords ; and where Christ, the visible 
representative of this Majesty divine, stand- 
eth waiting to welcome His followers to the 
fullness of His presence and the glory of His 
throne I 



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